Each month I share 7 ideas that have impacted my life over the last month. In October I attended Oktoberfest in NYC, marched through Times Square with hundreds of others dressed like zombies, and returned to DC during the Rally to Restore Sanity. Here’s a few notes of consequence in my life:
Blog: Wonkette has been a guilty-pleasure of mine the past two election cycles, with its tongue planted firmly in cheek. This former-Gawker blog whose irreverent, sarcastic humor has a decidedly inside-the-beltway appeal yet still makes me LOL.
Film: 500 days of Summer. At times this film is reminiscent of the best French New Wave, almost like a sequel to 400 Blows if the protagonist grows up and moves to Los Angeles.
Meme: Rent is 2 Damn High. Jimmy McMillan stole the show at the NY governor’s debate, riding a wave of memorable one-liners that introduced this candidate to voters in every state of the union. While the candidate may have lost his election bid with less than 1% of the vote, his single-minded focus brought attention to a serious issue (housing costs) in an election dominated by Tea Parties.
Music: Charlotte Gainsbourg. On top of being an accomplished artist already, Charlotte had the good sense to reach out to Beck to produce her second solo effort. The result is claustrophobic imagery and jangled beats that build the atmosphere around story of it’s titular IRM and illness. Consider this Beck channeling Nico and Velvet Underground, making it a strong contender for Album of the Year in my book.
Social Network: Twitter. Most of Twitter’s users might not call it a social network, but that began to change this last month with a redesign that gave users an immersive experience interacting on-site with their own social graph. Or at least Twitter has given us a new reason to use their microblog by adding insights between friends, finally giving me a reason to use their service on Twitter.com rather than any number of external tools.
Theory: Measured Life. Without realizing it, I create a mountain of data everyday; from energy usage and water consumption to daily check-ins on Foursquare. Even though my day job is very much about measurement, I’ve only begun to leverage the insight new tools have to improve my life. Call it Better Living Through Measurement, and I’ll be writing more about this soon.
TV Show: Community. I’ve been a fan if Dan Harmon since his Channel 101 days, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to see his rapier wit on Network television. For the uninitiated, this sitcom depicts a study group of misfits at a local college, who play out some common sitcom themes. Needless to say, I LOL watching this show.
As a special bonus to those who just can’t get enough, or at least those connected to my RSS feed, here’s a few more ideas worth sharing:
App: Square. It’s a credit card reader you plug into your headphone jack, instantly helping you split that check or providing receipts at your next garage sale. And it might just change commerce for small transactions. (Thanks Jack!)
Follow-up: Rally to Restore Sanity was the irreverent parody we all wanted it to be, and as much fun watching the crowd as those onstage.
Theme Party: Movember. I’m participating alongside my teammates/coworkers in Facial Attraction, to raise money and awareness for Men’s health issues.